Various - The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 3

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"I can tell you that. The Indians have sent word that they will not
fight against their brothers of St. John's and New Brunswick. That means
that they'll fight for them. We shall have an Indian war with the French
one. Think of the horrors of it." She shuddered as she spoke.

"Yes," returned Mrs. Eveleigh, with calm acquiescence. "It will be
dreadful for the people that live in the little villages and in the open
country."

This calmness, as if one were gazing from an impregnable fortress upon
the tortures and deaths of others, silenced Elizabeth. She looked the
speaker over slowly and turned away.

"Any more news?" asked Mrs. Eveleigh in a cheerful tone.

"I can tell you nothing more," returned Elizabeth.

This was literally true. It would not have been true if she had said
that she had heard nothing else, for she had been sitting with her
father for an hour, and had learned of a secret scheme,--a scheme so
daring that the very idea of it made her eyes kindle and her breath come
quickly,--a scheme that if it should fail would be hooted at as the
dream of vain-glorious madmen, and if it should succeed, would be
called a stroke of genius--magnificent. It interested her to know that
among the most eager to carry out the scheme was Major Vaughn, the man
whose valor she had asserted to Sir Temple Dacre a few months before. A
small band of men had pledged themselves to put reality into this dream
of grand achievement. "Its failure means," thought Elizabeth, "that
America is to be French and Jesuit; its success that Englishmen, and
liberty of mind and conscience, rule here." She prayed and hoped for
success, and took an eager interest in all the details of the scheme
that had reached her; but these were meagre enough, for, as yet, it
was only outlined; the main thing was that it was resolved upon. The
prisoners captured at Canso had been at last exchanged. They had been
brought to Boston, and had given valuable information about the place of
their captivity, the stronghold of France in America. Governor Shirley
had declared that Louisburg was to be captured, and that Colonel
Pepperell was the man to do it. Elizabeth, as she looked across at Mrs.
Eveleigh, wondered what she would say to the project. But she wondered
in silence, not only because silence had been enjoined, but because this
was not a woman to trust with the making of great events. She had heard
of an Indian war, and her chief thought had been that she would be safe.

The war had been talked about all the autumn. It was a terrible
necessity, but this new direction that it was to take was something
worth pondering over.

Elizabeth naturally, took large views of things, and, as her father's
companion, she had not learned to restrict them. But, also, for the last
months she had perceived dimly that there was a power within her which
might never be called into action. And this power rose, sometimes, with
vehemence against the monotony of her surroundings, in the midst of her
wealth of comforts and of affection.

It was the last of November, only two days after this conversation, that
Stephen Archdale was announced.

"He has come to tell me the decision," said Elizabeth to Mrs. Eveleigh;
"he promised he would come immediately. It's good news."

"Then what makes you so pale? And you're actually trembling."

Elizabeth looked at her companion in surprise, for all her years of
acquaintance with her.

"Don't you understand?" she said. "The strain is to be taken off. The
certainty must be good; and yet there is the possibility that it is not.
This and the thought that the moment has come make me tremble."

As she was speaking she moved away and in another moment was in the
drawing-room with Archdale.

"You have brought me word," she said, as soon as her greeting was over.
"You have good news; I see it in your eyes."

"Yes," he answered. "I suppose you will call it good news. You are free;
you are still Mistress Royal."

She clasped her hands impulsively, and retreated a few steps. It seemed
to him as he watched her that her first emotion was a thankfulness as
deep as a prayer. He saw that she could not speak. Then she came up to
him holding out both her hands.

"Never was any one so welcome to me as you with your words this
morning," she said. "I have not spoiled your life and Katie's."

"And you are free," he said again.

"Yes," she repeated, "I am free." And as she drew away her hands she
made a movement almost imperceptible and instantly checked, as if she
had thrown off some heavy weight. He read it, however, as he stood there
with his eyes upon her face, which was bright with a thankfulness and a
beauty that, although he had seen something of her possibilities of
expression, he had never dreamed of. How glad she was! A pang went
through him. He understood it afterward. It had meant that he was asking
himself if Katie's face, when he told her the news, would look so happy
at having gained him as this girl did at having lost him; and he had not
been sure of it. All the autumn there had been strange fancies in his
head about Katie. He had had no right, under the circumstances, to send
Lord Bulchester away; but it had seemed strange to him that any girl's
love of power should be carried so far if it were mere love of power
that moved her. But no shadow on Elizabeth's face showed him that she
dreamed of change in Katie, and Stephen felt rebuked that friendship
could find its object more perfect than love did.

"Will the wedding be on the anniversary of the other one?" asked
Elizabeth. "I suppose it will," she added; "Katie ought to have it so.
That will come in three weeks. It will be a little time before you sail,
if you go." And she smiled rather sadly, then glanced about her to make
sure that the last remark had not been overheard.

"Ah!" he said, "I see you know all about the scheme on foot. But it is
safe to trust you. You are very much interested," he added, watching
her.

"Very much. My father does trust me a good deal. But I hope I shall not
make him sorry for it."

Archdale kept on looking at her, and smiling.

"You prefer making people glad," he answered.

"But perhaps you will not go--now?" she said.

"Oh, yes. I promised my services to Colonel Pepperell last summer; that
holds me, you see. Besides, I want to do my part."

"I could not imagine you standing idle by while others were striking the
blows for our country," said Elizabeth. "Katie has told me a good deal
about you at one time and another. Dear Katie!" she added in an
undertone, with an exquisite gentleness in her face. Then, looking back
from the window where her eyes had wandered, she turned off her emotion
by some gay speech.

Very soon afterward the young man left her. For he was on his way to
carry the news to Katie who was then in Boston visiting her aunt. But to
go to her he passed Mr. Royal's door, and his wishes, as well as his
promise, made him delay his own happiness for a moment to see Elizabeth
rejoice. He saw her rejoice to his heart's content; and then he took
leave of her for his happy meeting with his betrothed.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

[Footnote 3: Copyright, 1884, by Frances C. Sparhawk.]

* * * * *

EDITOR'S TABLE.

Evidences are constantly multiplying that American history is a subject
which has not lost its interest to investigators or to readers. During
the past month four distinct works, namely, the fifth volume of Von
Holst's Constitutional History of the United States, the third of
Schouler's History of the United States, the second of McMaster's
History of the People of the United States, and also a new volume of
Hubert Howe Bancroft's History of the Pacific States, have been
published, and are destined, no doubt, to take their places as
"standards." This diligence on the part of their respective writers, and
the interest in them manifested by the great public is commendable, and
in a measure dispels the oft-repeated saying that Americans are a nation
of novel-readers.

It is gratifying, also, to record another fact. During the third week in
July the Old South lectures for young people, illustrative of "The War
for the Union," were inaugurated in Boston. The ancient "meeting-house"
was crowded with earnest students to hear the first lecture on slavery,
delivered by William Lloyd Garrison, Jr. The speaker gave a vivid sketch
of the chief events of the anti-slavery movement, and of the part taken
by George Thompson, Garrison, Phillips, Whittier, and Harriet Martineau.

* * * * *

Students of the anti-slavery struggle should not forget, however, how
much the success of that struggle was due to Mrs. Maria Weston Chapman,
whose death occurred at Weymouth, Mass., on July 12. She was not only a
_magna pars_ of the struggle, but one of the most remarkable women
of our time. Mrs. Maria Child used to relate how Mrs. Chapman, clad in
the height of fashion of that day, came into the first anti-slavery
fair, an entire stranger to every one present. "She looked around over
the few tables, scantily supplied, and stopped by some faded artificial
flowers. The poor commodity only indicated the utter poverty of means to
carry on the work. We thought her a spy, or maybe she was a
slave-holder." From that time she entered heartily into the work. She
became the life of the Female Anti-slavery Society in Boston, she spoke
often in public; her pen was never idle when it could advance the cause
of equal rights and freedom.

Mr. Lowell, in his rhymed letter, descriptive of an anti-slavery bazaar
at Faneuil Hall, and the celebrities of the cause there assembled, drew
the portrait of this gifted woman with his usual felicitous touch:--

"There was Maria Chapman, too,
With her swift eyes of clear steel-blue,
The coiled up mainspring of the Fair,
Originating everywhere
The expansive force, without a sound,
That whirls a hundred wheels around;
Herself meanwhile as calm and still
As the bare crown of Prospect Hill;
A noble woman, brave and apt,
Cumaea's sybil not more rapt,
Who might, with those fair tresses shorn,
'The Maid of Orlean' casque have worn;
Herself the Joan of our Arc,
For every shaft a shining mark."

* * * * *

It is one thing to be a good ship-builder for the government, and quite
another thing to be in favor with the Secretary of the Navy, at
Washington. This is the lesson, and the only lesson, which can be
deduced from the two dispatches which have been transmitted over the
country, namely: that the "Dolphin" has been rejected, and that John
Roach, her builder, has failed.

The case has its value as a warning to American ship-builders. They are
given to understand that the closest compliance with the requisitions of
the department in the process of constructing a vessel, and that under
the direction of experts, perfectly competent to determine what is good
work and what is bad, will avail them nothing unless they are in favor
with the Secretary when the vessel is offered for acceptance. And they
are warned that the Department of Justice holds it perfectly legal for
the Navy Department to lay upon them such conditions as to construction
as must determine the capacity of the vessel for speed, and yet reject
the vessel as not fast enough. They may be fined heavily for not having
used their discretion, and yet may have been denied discretion as to the
plans used.

It will be remembered by all who have watched the case, that the
"Dolphin" was found satisfactory and in full accordance with the terms
of the contract by one naval board, and that it was then condemned by
another board of no greater weight or capacity. If this fact be
remembered, it should be weighed with the full understanding that naval
officers, chosen by Mr. Whitney for this service, are just as much
dependents of the new Secretary as their predecessors were of Mr.
Chandler. The last set of officials, as experts, were not superior to
those which constituted the first; and yet Mr. Whitney bases his refusal
to accept the vessel upon the contradiction of the first report to the
second. If the first report was worthless, why not the second, in the
light of all the facts?

What is needed to-day is a board of examiners fully competent to
pronounce on the merits, of not only the "Dolphin" but of any and
every other ship that shall be built, and fully sundered from, and
independent of, political and official relations with the Navy
Department. The nearest approach to this is the report of the body of
experts--ship-builders, and ship-captains, experts in ship's materials,
and the like--whom Mr. Roach invited to examine the "Dolphin." The
report of these gentlemen flatly contradicts Mr. Whitney's board on
points which are matters of fact, and not of opinion, and therefore
throws the burden of proof upon Mr. Whitney himself. Until some equally
unpolitical and unofficial body refutes it, the treatment Mr. Roach has
received will be set down to other motives than the best.

* * * * *

The republic at last bows its head in sorrow at the death of its
greatest citizen. In awe and admiration it honors the character which,
heroic to the last, has never been more conspicuously shown than during
the months of that depressing illness, the end of which must have been
to him a welcome entering into rest.

The same unquailing courage, and the same calm, grim fortitude which
shed their fadeless lustre upon his whole extraordinary career were
evinced by General Grant at the last moments of his life. For months the
nation has hung over his bedside, awaiting the silent foot-fall of the
unseen conqueror of all that is mortal.

The nation's loss is not measured by the vacant place. For nearly a
decade General Grant had been only a private citizen, wielding no
sceptre of authority, and exercising no sway in the public councils. And
yet his going is a loss; for he was everywhere felt, not merely by what
he had done, but by what he was,--one of the great reserve forces of our
national commonwealth.

"Great men," said Burke, "are the guideposts and landmarks of the
State." General Grant was the guidepost of a victorious war, and a
landmark of a magnanimous peace. A pillar of strength has fallen; and
yet a broken shaft is not the fit emblem of his life. It is a finished
and splendid column, crowned with its full glory.

The chieftain is dead. The American people themselves will now judge
him, after the calm evening and the serene repose of retirement, more
justly than in the stress and storm of struggle. The asperities of angry
contentions have passed; the flaws have faded, and the blemishes are
dimmed, while the splendor of General Grant's achievements and the
simple grandeur of his character have gained a brighter halo as the
years have rolled by. The clouds and the smoke of battle have long since
lifted; the fragments and the scenes are swallowed in the majestic
drama; and to-day we see the hero elevated on his true pedestal of fame
through the just perspective of history.

It is given to few men to bear suffering with the fortitude displayed by
the departed hero; it is given to fewer still to await in patience and
without complaint the certain issue of suffering in death. But it is
neither his fortitude, nor his patience, nor his touching solicitude,
nor his unselfish industry which distinguished him in an almost unique
degree. It was rather, in one word, his simplicity, his strong but
unpretentious character, and his firm but magnanimous nature.

Of such, plainly, is the kingdom of Heaven, and it is a national glory
that of such, too, in the instance of General Grant, the American people
was never neglectful.

* * * * *

If every person who is inclined to attribute to Socialism all the
discontent now prevalent among the laboring classes of this country,
would carefully read Mr. Laurence Gronlund's remarkable book, entitled,
_The Cooeperative Commonwealth_,--an exposition of modern
Socialism,--he would perhaps awaken to a comprehension of the fact that
true Socialism is neither communism, nor lawlessness, nor anarchy. We
wish this book could be scattered, by millions, among the intelligent
people of this land, if for no other purpose than to root out many of
the false ideas which are current, as well as to inculcate a logical
explanation of much that is transpiring at the present moment.

We are told that at least 30,000 laborers are out of work in Cincinnati,
and that full as many are unemployed in Chicago. The same state of
affairs prevails in other large cities. These people, we are also told
by the newspapers, are "exposed to the designs of socialistic leaders,
and liable to embrace their dangerous schemes." Hence, it is to be
inferred, of course, that timely measures should be instituted to "guard
the unreflecting against socialistic theories and measures."

Despair sometimes calls for a desperate remedy. When men are in physical
or financial distress they _are_ apt to lose their heads, so to
speak, and to be subject to the wildest delusions and hallucinations. A
great many of the unfortunates now out of employment have been already
reduced to misery and want; but it is a mistake to suppose that the
philosophy of Socialism can afford them any relief or consolation, or
that it can incite them to mad deeds of violence. There are certain
demagogues in this country who, assuming to be Socialists, are ready to
stir up the popular mind, even to the shedding of blood; but such men
are few in numbers, and wield only a limited influence.

Now, Socialism holds that the impending reconstruction of society, which
Huxley predicts, will be brought about by the logic of events, and
teaches that the coming revolution, which every intelligent mind must
foresee, is strictly an evolution. Socialists of this school reason from
no assumed first principle, like the French, who start from "social
equality," or like Herbert Spencer, who lays it down as an axiom that
"every man has freedom to do all that he wills, provided he infringes
not the like freedom of every other man;" but basing themselves squarely
on _experience_,--not individual but universal experience,--they
can, and do present clear-cut, definite solutions.

It is this true _German_ Socialism which Mr. Gronlund, in the work
previously alluded to, very clearly presents, and which should be more
generally understood than it is.

Apropos of the subject, it will not be amiss to recall a statement made
by Frederic Harrison, namely:--

"The working-class is the only class which is not a class. It is the
nation. It represents, so to speak, the body as a whole, of which the
other classes only represent special organs. These organs, no doubt,
have great and indispensable functions, but for most purposes of
government the state consists of the vast laboring majority. Its welfare
depends on what their lives are like."

And this from Carlyle:--

"It is not to die, or even to die of hunger that makes a man wretched;
many men have died; all men must die. But it is to live miserable, we
know not why: to work sore and yet gain nothing; to be heartworn, weary,
yet isolated, unrelated, girt in with a cold universal _Laissez-faire_."

* * * * *

AMONG THE BOOKS.

It seems but a short time since we pored interestedly over the pages
of Mr. Stanley's "Through the Dark Continent," which described the
exploration of the Congo in 1876-7, from Nyongwe to the Atlantic
Ocean. The final results of that first expedition, which surpasses all
anticipation, are now recorded in two handsome volumes from the same
pen, bearing the title: _The Congo and the Founding of Its Free
State_.[4] When Mr. Stanley, in 1878, had crossed the African
continent and had reached the mouth of the Congo, he took ship for
Europe. He had reached Marseilles, where, in the railway-station, he was
met by two commissioners who had been sent by Leopold II., King of the
Belgians, for the express purpose of interesting Mr. Stanley in the
project entertained by that king of founding a State in the heart of
Africa. This project was subsequently accepted, and all the powers of
Europe entered into the scheme. Mr. Stanley now relates, for the first
time, the story of the founding,--a story which is as entertaining as
the liveliest piece of fiction, and as marvellous in its unfolding as
would be the sudden discovery of a new and habitable world. From the
mouth of the Congo to Stanley Falls is about fifteen hundred miles, and
the basin of this immense river contains more than a million and a half
square miles; that is, a territory nearly one-half as large as that of
the United States. The opening of this great country to the commerce of
the world is one of the greatest events of the nineteenth, indeed of
any, century. By the agreement of the sovereigns of Europe, no European
power is ever to be permitted to seize the sea-coasts of the continent,
or to levy differential customs and high tariffs upon the commerce of
the world such as our New England and Middle States now levy upon the
West and South. Forever hereafter a merchant or producer dwelling in the
Congo can dispose of his ivory and ebony, or any other product
whatsoever, in whatever market it will yield him the most money, and buy
his shovel and hoe, his gunpowder, and the like, where he can buy them
the best and the cheapest. It is, perhaps, not too much to affirm that
the founding of such an empire on such a basis will make in time as
great a change in commercial affairs as the establishment of the
American Republic has made in political affairs and in the relation of
men to governments. The work of Mr. Stanley is destined to have a large
influence. It is the most important book on Africa that has ever been
written at any period of time or in any language. And yet no record of
good deeds grandly done could savor of more modesty and
unpretentiousness than does the narrative in these two noble volumes.

* * * * *

Miss Anna Laurens Dawes, the daughter of Senator Dawes, of
Massachusetts, has undertaken "an explanation of the Constitution and
government of the United States," in her book entitled _How We are
Governed_.[5] Believing, as we do, that a knowledge of politics is an
essential part of education, we hail this work as one of the hopeful
signs of the times, and commend it especially to young people, because
the author has so accurately and comprehensively accomplished her task
as to make it worthy of confidence. Simplicity in writing is the first
needed qualification of one who undertakes to instruct youth. Miss Dawes
exhibits this quality, and takes nothing for granted as to the previous
knowledge of her readers. Her plan follows the order of the
Constitution, and that document is quoted in full, and in its several
parts under the division of "The Legislature," "The Executive," "The
Citizen," and "The States."

* * * * *

It is the practical nature of the contents of _The Hunter's
Handbook_[6] which will commend it to all readers, and which stamps
it as an indispensable work for all persons who "go camping out." This
is just the season for such healthful recreation and resting among the
hills or along shore. It is just the season, too, when, unless he knows
exactly how to manage, the camper-out is subjected to a great many
annoyances as well as pleasures. The little work under notice contains
many valuable hints and suggestions, while its notes of all camp
requisites and receipts are exceedingly valuable. Some of the author's
quaint aphorisms on camp economy, camp neatness and cleanliness, and on
the signs and portents of the weather, will tend to keep the reader in
good humor. It would require years of experience for new beginners to
acquire the information which a half hour's study of this book will
easily impart. To all such, then, it is invaluable.

The first volume of Mr. McMaster's entertaining work on the _History
of the People of the United States_[7] appeared just three years ago
this summer, and the lively interest which it then aroused gave promise
of the cordial welcome that would be generally extended to future
volumes of the same work. The first volume closed with the year 1790.
The second volume, which has recently been published, continues the easy
and entertaining narrative down to 1803. Within its seven chapters there
is a vast fund of valuable information in regard to life and society as
they existed under the early administrations. These chapters cover the
experimental years of the Republic under the Constitution,--the years
which, so susceptible of popular treatment, are so particularly engaging
to students of American history. At so formative a period in the
national development, when there was open contest between Congress and
the States, when the group of undoubted aristocrats gathered around
Hamilton were in direct opposition to the extreme republicanism of the
circle which acknowledged Jefferson as its chief, the dominance of
English or French influence was an element of great moment to the future
of the nation. Mr. McMaster has most admirably handled this phase of his
subject.

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